At least 68 people have been killed and 200 others wounded by Al-Qaeda-linked militants in a Nairobi shopping mall, as the hostage crisis there has entered its second day. Foreigners are among the casualties.

The Red Cross in Kenya said on Sunday that the death toll in the
Westgate mall siege has risen to 68.

10 to 15 gunmen are still inside the shopping center, a Kenyan
minister has reported. 30 hostages are still inside the building,
according to the country’s officials and Western diplomatic
sources cited by CNN.

AP journalists reported from the scene that gunfire was heard in
the mall on Sunday morning. They added that following the
shooting, two wounded Kenyan security forces were carried from
the mall.

On Sunday Kenyan troops launched an assault on cornered Somali
militants in the Westgate shopping mall.

Police said they fear the death toll could be higher after
hearing reports of multiple corpses inside the building.

The Kenyan president’s office announced that one of the gunmen
arrested by police in the Nairobi shopping mall died from gunshot
wounds.

“Operations are continuing…We will free all those inside and
stop this, of course we cannot give details of the operations
except to say that everything that can be done is being
done,” a security officer said, as quoted by AFP.

Israeli advisers are reportedly helping Kenya to work out a
strategy to end a siege at the mall.

"There are Israeli advisers helping with the negotiating
strategy, but no Israelis involved in any imminent storming
operation," an Israeli security source told Reuters.

Masked assailants, armed with AK-47s and grenades launched their
attack on the Westgate shopping mall in the Kenyan capital around
noon on Saturday.

Gunmen were said to have lobbed grenades at the onset of the
strike. They then proceeded to shoot indiscriminately and took
several people hostage at the mall in Nairobi. Armed police
arrived on the scene nearly half an hour later, as scores of
shoppers were fleeing the building. Some of the wounded were
wheeled out on stretchers and shopping carts.

"I personally touched the eyes of four people and they were
dead. One of them was a child. Its carnage up there," said a
former British soldier at the scene.

Al-Shabaab, a hardline Al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamist group with a
stronghold in neighboring Somalia, claimed responsibility for the
Nairobi shooting. It had earlier threatened to strike the mall,
as it is a popular destination for the city’s expatriate
community.

One victim said that he had been shot by a man who appeared to be
Somali, while others noted the gunmen were speaking in a foreign
language.

"A Somali guy shot at me. The guy who shot me was carrying a
rifle, an AK-47," said Saptal Singh, who was in a cafe in the
top floor of the mall.

Witnesses said the attackers ordered all Muslims to leave the
premises, as only non-Muslims would be targeted.
Somalia’s Al-Shabaab militant group said on Saturday that it is
in contact with what it called “Mujahideen” gunmen who had
attacked the shopping mall. They added that they would not be
negotiating with the Mujahideen in the shopping center.

"The Kenyan govt is pleading with our Mujahideen inside the
mall for negotiations. There will be no negotiations whatsoever
at the Westgate (the mall where the attack took place)," the
Al-Shabaab militant group said on its official Twitter account.

The group had apparently been live tweeting the attack on the
mall under the username @HSM_Press, until the account was
suspended by the social network following multiple reports from
other Twitter users.

This is crazy. The Somali militant group al-Shabab is live
tweeting their attack on #Westgate
shopping mall in #kenya
at @HSM_Press

The Al-Qaeda linked militant group said that the attack was in
revenge for crimes allegedly committed by Kenyan soldiers in
Somalia. Troops from Kenya and other African nations are serving
as peacekeepers in war torn Somalia to the north.

President Uhuru Kenyatta said the attack sought to intimidate and
divide the nation, but stated that the "terrorists" will be
defeated. The president added that he lost "very close family
members" in the mall shooting.

"The despicable perpetrators of this cowardly act hoped to
intimidate, divide and cause despondency amongst Kenyans,"
Kenyatta said in a televised address to the nation. "We have
overcome terrorist attacks before. We will defeat them
again."

Kenyatta said Saturday that his nephew and his fiancé
died in the mall attack.

The mall is popular with expatriates in Nairobi and while most of
the killed and injured are Kenyans, there are also foreign
nationals among the casualties.

Two French citizens were confirmed dead in the attack, France's
presidential office stated. Also, two Canadians have been killed,
including one diplomat, according to Canadian Prime Minister,
Stephen Harper.

"We have reports of American citizens injured in the attack,
and the US Embassy is actively reaching out to provide
assistance," State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said in
a statement.

Britain’s Foreign Ministry confirmed Sunday that three Britons
were also among the dead.

One of the British witnesses of the attack said that she and 60
others barricaded themselves in a large storeroom.

"We kept running to different places but the shots were
getting louder so we barricaded ourselves along with about 60
others in a large storeroom. There were children hiding with us
as well as someone who had been shot," Hannah Chisholm told
BBC. "The gunfire was loud and we were scared but at that
point we thought the gunmen were thieves so we assumed they
wouldn't try to reach the storeroom."

This is the biggest terrorist attack in Nairobi since 1998, when
bombing at the U.S. Embassy left 213 dead. At that time Al-Qaeda
claimed responsibility for the attacks.